She’s brought her learning back home

Dr. Bonnie Stewart is home in Prince Edward Island now, but she spent the first decade of her career travelling and working as an educator around the globe.

She continues to work around the world, delivering keynote speeches at digital innovation conferences in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, and leading digital literacy initiatives with educators in Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the Northwest Territories. But now she wants to bring her depth and breadth of experience back home.

“I wanted an opportunity to bring some of the perspectives and expertise I've gleaned in all those travels back home to the system where my kids go to school,” Stewart said.

She applied, through Engage PEI, to be a part of the Learning Partners Advisory Council. Engage PEI helps Islanders apply to volunteer for more than 70 provincial government agencies, boards, and commissions.

As an educator and researcher, Stewart’s work centres on innovative models for education and learning.

“I think learning is what humans do, sometimes whether we want to or not,” she says. “But sometimes in the process, the learning part gets lost in what we call schooling, and I'm not sure schooling -  in the one-size-fits-all sense - is what our changing society needs.”

A particular area of interest for Stewart, which she focused on for her PhD research, is technology in education. She stumbled into exploring digital communications because she wrote a blog for five years before she returning to do her PhD studies. She found herself part of a wide network of support and storytelling, but also saw media changing dramatically.

Stewart added,  “I want PEI's education systems – at all levels, early childhood, K-12, post-secondary – to be ready to foster learners’ abilities to engage as citizens with their communities and with the world.”

Stewart lives in Charlottetown with her partner Dave Cormier, and their two children Oscar, 10 and Josephine, 8.

To learn more about which agency, board or commission may fit your interests, contact Engage PEI.